boonecounty

A proposal for a zoning map amendment in Boone County drew several residents to the fiscal court meeting last week to protest the plan.

The area in question is around the Walton/Chamber Road where a new industrial site is planned.

This was the first reading for a zoning change from agricultural estate to industrial for a 208.73-acre site located on the west side of Dixie Highway, south of the property at 11765 Dixie Highway, and north of the properties at 12097 and 12119 Dixie Highway, and on the north side of Chambers road, and south of the property at 60 Logistics Boulevard.

The property had gone before the planning commission back in 2007 with a plan for development, but the planning commission had denied the plan, and the owners withdrew it. 

One of the issues noted at the time was that the roads were not adequate for the development.

Now there are plans for improving the Richwood Road area, so the Northpoint Development company is making the request for Greenview Farms now for the zone change. 

The plans are for several groupings of buildings, each with driveways to help with truck stacking and landscaping to include buffering for the neighboring properties.

People who came to the meeting for this matter were allowed to speak, and the most frequent complaint was the potential traffic. At this time, residents said that tractor trailers and dump trucks fly down U.S. 25 and are a nightmare for other cars.

Margo Grubbs declared that the county is growing “too big for its britches”. Deborah Durr said that her 97 acres have been her home for 40 years, and her concerns were the traffic, flooding, and that the county should keep its promises to those already here.  

Another resident asked if the point of the constant development was to have more and more empty warehouses sitting everywhere.  

Judge/Executive Gary Moore allowed everyone who wanted to, to talk and there were about a dozen people who did. He allowed a representative from Northpoint to address their concerns, but nothing seemed to be settled.  

The second reading of the ordinance was scheduled for the meeting on July 6, but Judge Moore pushed it back to the meeting on July 27, to see if some of the issues could be better addressed.

In other business, another ordinance was read for the first time which would establish a sign district for Big Bone Baptist Church, a 15.5-acre site located at 11036 Big Bone Church Road. 

The current sign, which is 28 years old, is sitting in the right-of-way instead of on the church’s property, so if the county establishes a sign district, the church can replace the sign.

-Patricia A. Scheyer, RCN contributor